Cochrane Db Syst Rev
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2018
Review Meta AnalysisPatient reminder and recall interventions to improve immunization rates.
Immunization rates for children and adults are rising, but coverage levels have not reached optimal goals. As a result, vaccine-preventable diseases still occur. In an era of increasing complexity of immunization schedules, rising expectations about the performance of primary care, and large demands on primary care providers, it is important to understand and promote interventions that work in primary care settings to increase immunization coverage. One common theme across immunization programs in many nations involves the challenge of implementing a population-based approach and identifying all eligible recipients, for example the children who should receive the measles vaccine. However, this issue is gradually being addressed through the availability of immunization registries and electronic health records. A second common theme is identifying the best strategies to promote high vaccination rates. Three types of strategies have been studied: (1) patient-oriented interventions, such as patient reminder or recall, (2) provider interventions, and (3) system interventions, such as school laws. One of the most prominent intervention strategies, and perhaps best studied, involves patient reminder or recall systems. This is an update of a previously published review. ⋯ Patient reminder and recall systems, in primary care settings, are likely to be effective at improving the proportion of the target population who receive immunizations.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2018
Review Meta AnalysisNon-antipsychotic catecholaminergic drugs for antipsychotic-induced tardive dyskinesia.
Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is a disabling movement disorder associated with the prolonged use of antipsychotic medication. Several strategies have been examined in the treatment of TD. Currently, however, there is no clear evidence of the effectiveness of these drugs in TD and they have been associated with many side effects. One particular strategy would be to use pharmaceutical agents which are known to influence the catecholaminergic system at various junctures. ⋯ Although there has been a large amount of research in this area, many studies were excluded due to inherent problems in the nature of their cross-over designs. Usually data are not reported before the cross-over and the nature of TD and its likely response to treatments make it imprudent to use this data. The review provides little usable information for service users or providers and more well-designed and well-reported studies are indicated.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2018
Review Meta AnalysisCerebral near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for perioperative monitoring of brain oxygenation in children and adults.
Various techniques have been employed for the early detection of perioperative cerebral ischaemia and hypoxia. Cerebral near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is increasingly used in this clinical scenario to monitor brain oxygenation. However, it is unknown whether perioperative cerebral NIRS monitoring and the subsequent treatment strategies are of benefit to patients. ⋯ The effects of perioperative active cerebral NIRS monitoring of brain oxygenation in adults for reducing the occurrence of short-term, mild POCD are uncertain due to the low quality of the evidence. There is uncertainty as to whether active cerebral NIRS monitoring has an important effect on postoperative stroke, delirium or death because of the low number of events and wide confidence intervals. The conclusions of this review may change when the eight ongoing studies are published and the 12 studies awaiting assessment are classified. More RCTs performed in the paediatric population and high-risk patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery (e.g. neurosurgery, carotid endarterectomy and other surgery) are needed.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2018
Review Meta AnalysisAnticholinergic medication for antipsychotic-induced tardive dyskinesia.
Antipsychotic (neuroleptic) medication is used extensively to treat people with serious mental illnesses. However, it is associated with a wide range of adverse effects, including movement disorders. Because of this, many people treated with antipsychotic medication also receive anticholinergic drugs in order to reduce some of the associated movement side-effects. However, there is also a suggestion from animal experiments that the chronic administration of anticholinergics could cause tardive dyskinesia. ⋯ Based on currently available evidence, no confident statement can be made about the effectiveness of anticholinergics to treat people with antipsychotic-induced tardive dyskinesia. The same applies for the withdrawal of such medications. Whether the withdrawal of anticholinergics may benefit people with antipsychotic-induced TD should be evaluated in a parallel-group, placebo-controlled randomised trial, with adequate sample size and at least 6 weeks of follow-up.
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The role of gefitinib for the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is evolving. We undertook a systematic review to evaluate the available evidence from all randomised trials. ⋯ This systematic review shows that gefitinib, when compared with standard first- or second-line chemotherapy or maintenance therapy, probably has a beneficial effect on progression-free survival and quality of life in selected patient populations, particularly those with tumours bearing sensitising EGFR mutations.Patients with EGFR mutations lived longer when given maintenance gefitinib than those given placebo.One study conducted subgroup analysis and showed that gefitinib improved overall survival over placebo in the second-line setting in patients of Asian ethnicity. All other studies did not detect any benefit on overall survival. The data analysed in this review were very heterogenous. We were limited in the amount of data that could be pooled, largely due to variations in study design. The risk of bias in most studies was moderate, with some studies not adequately addressing potential selection, attrition and reporting bias. This heterogeneity may have an impact on the applicability of the resultsCombining gefitinib with chemotherapy appears to be superior in improving progression-free survival to either gefitinib or chemotherapy alone, however further data and phase III studies in these settings are required.Gefitinib has a favourable toxicity profile when compared with current chemotherapy regimens. Although there is no improvement in overall survival, gefitinib compares favourably with cytotoxic chemotherapy in patients with EGFR mutations with a prolongation of progression-free survival and a lesser side effect profile.